This invention relates to an adjustable guide for guiding a powered hand saw in making cuts in a workpiece.
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to make a straight-line cut in a piece of lumber or the like with a powered hand saw without a guide. In a lumber-cutting operation, sheets of lumber must be cut into pieces having various shapes and sizes. A guide having a great many adjustment capabilities is needed to accommodate the above-described variety of cuts.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a guide which can be used to guide a powered hand saw in cutting an infinite variety of angles in various sizes of lumber and the like.
More particularly, an object of this invention is to provide a guide which can be adjusted to fit many different sizes of lumber.
Another object of the invention is to provide such a guide which can be attached easily and securely to a piece of lumber at an infinite number of angles.
A further object of the invention is to provide a guide of the type so far indicated which can be locked in many different preselected angular positions.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a guide which has angular position markings and, for each set of markings, an assoicated pointer for pointing at the markings to register the angular position of the guide.
In one embodiment of the invention, a pair of parallel spaced rails support a pair of carriages slidably mounted thereon. Swingably mounted on each carriage is one end of an arm, with the other end thereof carrying a clamp. Each carriage includes a stop-lock mechanism for locking the associated arm in a preselected angular position relative to the carriage.
In another embodiment, a channel member forms a rail for receiving two carriages. Clamp-carrying arms are swingably mounted on these carriages, with one such arm, but not the other, being detentably lockable in different preselected angular positions.
In use, the carriages are slidably adjusted to fit the size of the workpiece. The arms are swung toward the workpiece and the clamps are clamped thereto. The guide is thereby locked in a selected angular relationship relative to a workpiece, and a cut is made.
These and other objects and advantages which are attained by the invention will become more fully apparent as the description which follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.